"The struggle and the arts are connected almost by definition," Ossie Davis once said. The statement also defined his life and career as an actor and director on film, TV and the stage: He pushed for social justice both in entertainment and real life, usually alongside his wife, actress Ruby Dee.

Ossie Davis and his wife Ruby Dee were 2004 Kennedy Center honorees.

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Whether he was appearing in the most serious of dramas or lightest of comedies, Davis always seemed to embody a sense of wisdom and authority with a warm, rich voice and quiet dignity. At the same time, there was a sly humor and genuine kindness lurking just beneath the surface.

Davis, 87, died Friday in Florida. He had been working on the film comedy Retirement with Jack Warden, Peter Falk and George Segal.

Davis left behind a vast body of work. He starred in such movies as The Joe Louis Story, Slaves, Let's Do It Again, Grumpy Old Men and Dr. Dolittle, as well as Spike Lee's School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever and last year's She Hate Me.

As a director, he is probably best remembered for 1970's gritty Cotton Comes to Harlem, a precursor to the blaxploitation films of the decade, and 1973's Gordon's War.

His TV work ranged from Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones in 1955 to the Burt Reynolds sitcom Evening Shade to the Showtime series The L Word. He also starred in Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum, Alex Haley's Queen and Roots: The Next Generations and Stephen King's The Stand.

Broadway dimmed the lights Saturday for Davis, who began his career in 1940 in On Strivers Row and met his wife on the set of Jeb in 1946. As a playwright, he was most famous for 1961's controversial sendup of racial stereotypes, Purlie Victorious, which would be redone as the musical Purlie nine years later.

Davis and Dee paid a cost for many of the political choices they made. They sued in federal court for black voting rights, and when singer/actor Paul Robeson ran afoul of the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s, they were steadfast in their support even as they were blacklisted and other blacks rushed to denounce him.

They were at the forefront of the 1963 March on Washington, and when their friend Malcolm X was assassinated, Davis delivered a moving eulogy for the controversial leader. He also spoke at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.

Actor Roy Scheider, who had worked with Davis and attended anti-war rallies with him, told the Associated Press that Davis and Dee were "the first political couple of America. Ossie seemed to always show up at the right time, on the right side, which was always the human side. He had a very heartfelt sympathy for people everywhere."

Burt Reynolds told AP: "Since the loss of my father, no man has come close to represent the kind of man I hope to be someday. I know he's sitting next to God now, and I know God envies that voice."

In the mid-'90s, Davis told an audience at Cornell University that he recalled hearing Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after she had been banned from singing at Washington's Constitution Hall. "I understood fully for the first time," he said, "the importance of black song, black music, black arts. I was handed my spiritual assignment that night."

Davis and Dee, who have three children, celebrated their first 50 years together in 1998 with the dual memoir With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. In December, they received Kennedy Center Honors celebrating their achievements. Dee, 80, was in New Zealand making a movie at the time of Davis' death.

Della Reese, Maya Angelou and Odetta will participate in a tribute to Davis tonight at a Kennedy Center program Davis had been scheduled to be part of.

"As we went along, we became aware of something," Davis said in 1998. "It was from the struggle itself that we gained our true identity. It was the struggle itself that gave us cause to stay together as long as we have."